Social Cache.
A Nemo blog. Dealing with uncommon cents.

Instead of frequenting the usual high-end haunts of Saks and Bergdorf’s, shoppers are now hitting invitation-only events, private showrooms and even soirees in their friend’s houses to get their shopping fixes. People don’t want to be spotted in public buying mounds of luxury goods during these harsh economic times; they’d much prefer to be stealth about it.

Besides just shopping without the glaring eyes and guilt, women are also loving the influx of invitation-only events because they’re getting a chance to gossip and catch up with friends while spending money. A trick of many of these multi-day events is to donate a small percentage of proceeds to a charity organization, which further encourages spending without the guilt.

Even more discreet shoppers have turned their attention to the web, scouring Ebay and other high-end sites for discounted designer deals. Even with the gloomy economic outlook, there’s no doubt that major shopping is still taking place. It’s just that this time around, the goal is to not be seen or heard.

Photo courtesy of The NY Times

According to the NY Times, even luxury goods are not exempt from the faltering economy. High-end Fifth Avenue department stores including Bergdorf Goodman are luring in shoppers with enticingly deep discounts. Customers are now digging though designer handbags on tables with prices slashed upwards of 40%. The New Yorker’s Patricia Marx has even remarked that “Sixty percent off is the new black.”

Surprisingly, established luxury retailer Saks dug even deeper than its competitors, dropping the prices of much of its fall fashion up to 70 percent. Customers were so shocked that they assumed that many of the price tags were misprints.

A just released MasterCard Advisors report lists luxury goods sales as being of nearly 25% off this year when compared with last. The era revolving around the endless drive towards high-end consumption appears to be drying up fast.

The NY Times raises the question that everyone is pondering: With such deep discounts on luxury goods, consumers are left wondering what the astronomical mark-ups were in the past. And, now that they’ve witnessed these bargain basement prices, will they be willing to pay full price ever again?

With hard economic times now resonating worldwide, it was only a matter of time before online luxury retailers like Net-a-Porter had to adjust their marketing strategy. Before the recession, the goal was to sell unapologetically expensive designer clothing shipped in glamorous black boxes. Now, a new mass email features a photo of two 50’s era women sharing a secret with the headline of “You’ve Been Shopping – We Won’t Tell…” The subtext cheekily reads “Your items will arrive in an unbranded recycled brown paper bag and we’ll be the only ones who know.”

This newfound move towards more discretional shopping is in part due to the guilt complex with buying a piece of designer apparel that easily runs upwards of a few thousand dollars while many people are struggling to make ends meet. Conspicuous consumption is now a dirty word.

Even though consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in 40 years, a small percentage of the population wants to keep on shopping. They just don’t want family, neighbors and coworkers to know about it.

In the current economic state, women who barely thought twice about charging a $1,200 designer purse are now skipping these luxuries and settling for their lower-priced counterparts. According to the NY Times, the movement of purchasing thriftier fashions has been coined recession chic. Women like price-conscious shopper Mary Hall have added a spin on the term and proudly declare themselves recessionistas. Hall has even founded the Recessionista blog, cataloging all the smart buys she comes across.

While the term ‘recession’ is considered unfavorable, embracing recessionista instead is seen as a way to embrace the economic downturn (and to keep on shopping in the process.) Though women are throwing around recessionista in casual banter, lexiconographer Grant Barret is warning us that “it’s kind of permitting consumers to have justification for their spending habits.” In a way, he’s reminding us that there’s something very off-putting about shopping for piles of clothing we don’t need in a shaky economy. Writer Lauren Sandler asks “Do women in today’s economy want to confront pages of $1,000 shoes when they are struggling to pay the rent?” Yet, without shopping, many designers and retailers will falter.

In the meantime, The NY Times reminds us that as catchy as recessionista seems, if the economy worsens, it may be replaced with…depressionista.

Now that Sarah Palin’s designer-laden $150,000 wardrobe expenditure has been confirmed, the Rebuplican party has pushed into overdrive with defensive responses. In the past few days, the McCain camp affirmed that she did none of the shopping herself and that once the campaigning is over, all of the clothing will be donated to charity.

The reason this expenditure raises so much worry is because Palin was billed as a working mom of five with blue-collar roots. This sudden shift to designer labels, whether it was her decision or not, was called out by Joy Behar, a cohost on ABC’s The View. “I don’t think Joe the Plumber wears Manolo Blahniks,” she said.

These expenditures have the ability to further alienate Palin from the working-class Republicans she has courted, since many of them are suffering so much in the weakening economy. Whether this will cause a permanent rift between Palin and the legions of “Joe Six-Packs” remains to be seen.

NubbyTwiglet.com: An Art Retrospective

Nemo Design is very excited to present NubbyTwiglet.com: An Art Retrospective by Nemo’s own Shauna Haider, opening on Friday, October 03, 2008. The show will run through Monday November 03, 2008 at Nemo Design: 1875 SE Belmont Street in Portland, OR.

Stripes, shoes and letter forms are collaged into tight, slick pop art on wood and ceramic that are sealed in epoxy resin.

These sturdy and fashion-conscious collages are produced by hand in single editions. Personal photos are edited and combined with fashion magazine cut-outs to create graphically-charged collages that blur the lines between fine art and design.

The Black & White Graphic Insight series is an ode to my love of graphic design. Stark lines and a heavy mix of a mostly black and white palette are a bold contrast to the natural surfaces.

The largest and most complex series yet, Black & White Graphic Insight aims to spark a new-found appreciation for collage as a fine art form.

For further information, please visit http://www.nubbytwiglet.com.